Shift 6 focuses on students increasing their academic vocabulary. According to Robert Marzano, "Direct vocabulary instruction is fundamental to effective teaching...there is a vast difference in the vocabularies of low versus high-achieving students. Data collected as far back as 1941 indicate there is roughly a 6000-word gap between students at the 25th and 50th percentiles on standardized tests in grades 4-12," (Carleton and Marzano 1).
What this means for us is that there is research supporting the success of students related directly to their mastery of vocabulary. If we expect our students to succeed in our classes, we must help them master the vernacular of the class. As your students move through the texts you select for your classes, you should pay attention to the vocabulary opportunities presented by those texts. Students can develop content-specific vocabulary (ex: Character, plot, legislative, judicial, photosynthesis) knowledge by keeping track of new words they encounter in their reading and then completing some vocabulary-building exercises.
For more information about specific activities you can use for building academic vocabulary, check out the various works of Robert Marzano.
Academic Vocabulary is important because it not only helps students understand the content they are being exposed to in that particular class, but also gives them an understanding of the words that can be transferred to other content areas.
Works Cited:
Carleton, Lindsay, and Robert Marzano. Vocabulary Games for the Classroom. 1st. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory, 2010. Print.
What this means for us is that there is research supporting the success of students related directly to their mastery of vocabulary. If we expect our students to succeed in our classes, we must help them master the vernacular of the class. As your students move through the texts you select for your classes, you should pay attention to the vocabulary opportunities presented by those texts. Students can develop content-specific vocabulary (ex: Character, plot, legislative, judicial, photosynthesis) knowledge by keeping track of new words they encounter in their reading and then completing some vocabulary-building exercises.
For more information about specific activities you can use for building academic vocabulary, check out the various works of Robert Marzano.
Academic Vocabulary is important because it not only helps students understand the content they are being exposed to in that particular class, but also gives them an understanding of the words that can be transferred to other content areas.
Works Cited:
Carleton, Lindsay, and Robert Marzano. Vocabulary Games for the Classroom. 1st. Bloomington, IN: Marzano Research Laboratory, 2010. Print.
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